Nek Chand Saini of India is not a classically trained artist. He didn’t go to art schools and he didn’t travel the world to visit famous art galleries. What he did have, though, was a passion for the world of art. So, lacking a conventional outlet for his creativity, Chand turned to his surroundings for inspiration. Continue reading →

For fish, I suspect that a professionally designed custom aquarium is the equivalent of a $10 million luxury mansion. Your fish have a beautiful home that’s constantly maintained and carefully manicured. To top it all off they’ve got you to wait on them hand and food, feeding them tiny little morsels of gourmet fish cuisine whenever they get hungry. Talk about a luxury life. And as we all know, every swanky modern mansion needs a swimming pool. It’s too bad that you can’t install a swimming pool in your home aquarium… or can you? Continue reading →

What do you get when you mix together a zoo, a waterfall, and a skyscraper? Yeah, I’m not sure what you’d call it, either, but you can be your bottom dollar that it would be ridiculously amazing. This sky-zoo-fall isn’t something out of a Dr. Seuss book — Sweden design company VisionDivision seriously wants to build this wacky, hybrid habitat. Continue reading →

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Those are the first 2 lines of Tolkien’s famous book, The Hobbit. He imagined a race of little folk who carved their houses into the sides of hills to create comfortable, cozy little abodes. While living in burrows isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, it’s got an undeniable allure.

For us humans stuck on boring ol’ planet earth, there aren’t many places that will allow us to experience life as a Hobbit. The Mountain Magic Lodge, a quaint little hotel situated Chile (which I suppose is the earth version of the Shire), can give visitors a taste of Hobbit life.

Image: Fototelegraf

It’s got pretty much everything you could hope for: seclusion in a verdant forest, a suspended wooden bridge, cozy rooms, and even a bubbling waterfall at the top of the lodge that sends water trickling down over the sides of the structure. To top it all off, the lodge was built exclusively out of local wood and stone to make it as natural as possible.

Image: Fototelegraf

Spending a night at the Mountain Magic Lodge is a fantastic way to get in touch with nature. Living inside of this psuedo-underground structure, with the calming sounds of water dripping down the walls just outside of your windows, it would be impossible not to let go of your worries and let your stress melt away.

Image: Fototelegraf

In fact, the soothing effect of water is something of a theme at the Lodge. It was built near the Hulio Hulio falls, so guests can put on their hiking shoes and visit one of the world’s most beautiful cascades whenever they like. And when their legs are aching from a day of hiking and exploration, guests can fall into one of the hot tubs carved out of enormous tree trunks. What more could you possibly ask for?

Valentine’s Day is on the horizon. If any of you guys out there are just like me, then you probably don’t have a clue what to do for your special someone and probably won’t until, oh, February 13. While it may not always be easy to come up with a clever and romantic date, the nice thing about Valentine’s Day is that the event just kind of takes care of itself. You get the girl chocolates, you grab some flowers, and you head out on a romantic dinner.

What kind of chocolates? Go with something Swiss. Don’t know what kind of flowers your girlfriend likes? Me neither! What I can help you with, however, is to point out some classy water-themed restaurants (this is an aquatic architecture blog, after all) that will be sure to leave your lovely lady swooning come Valentine’s Day.

If you and your gal just so happen to be in the Philippines on February 14, then boy do I have the perfect place for you! San Pablo City’s Villa Escudero Resort has got a classy yet fun restaurant that will earn you plenty of brownie points.

Image: Inhabitat

The main attraction, if you couldn’t have guessed from the pictures, is the waterfall that runs down the side walls. This isn’t one of those for-display-purposes-only waterfalls. The owners invite guests to sit beneath the falls as they wait for their meals. And if you don’t want to sit under the waterfall, well, too bad. You’re going to get wet anyway.

Image: Inhabitat

The restaurant is actually designed in such a way that the water flows across the floor of the restaurant and over the feet of diners. As you can see, this isn’t the type of place where couples show up in a slinky black dress and a suit. Of course, the bamboo tables and droves of tourists might have given you that impression already. It’s more of a shorts/skirts and flip flops event, but that doesn’t make the date any less special. Save the fancy outfits for your anniversary, and go out on a date where the two of you can just goof around and have some real fun together.

Image: Inhabitat

And after you experience some fine local cuisine, you can take your gal to partake in some local customs perfectly suited for out-of-town tourists like you. For example, the two of you can go have a coconut harvesting lesson, which is a great opportunity for you to impress your date with your, um, coconut harvesting skills – whatever that entails.